Therapy dog?

[SadieA]

Sam is still a bit of a crazy puppy, but we're taking lots of obedience classes, and I'm hoping once he's older and well behaved, he can be one of those dogs that visits patients at the hospital, or folks at nursing homes. Does anyone have a dog that they do that kind of thing with, and if so, how did you train your dog to be good and calm with people, and did you have to get any special certifications?

I think Sam would really love doing this, because he loves people, and just LOVES getting petted. He'll sit quietly next to anyone who will pet him, and just rest his head on their lap.

[Bubbalove]

I work with several therapy dogs (one pug and one bullmastiff).  I, too hope to get Kana there someday...wish ful thinking. 
Look into the Delta Society. They are very reputable and have certified all of the dogs I know.  In the past we had a black lab, greater swiss mountain dog and 2 miniature schnauzers. 
It's a really wonderful tool for therapy & rehabilitation!  I am a true believer!!!!!

[GreatPyr]

http://www.tdi-dog.org/

You might want to check them out.Our Max was on his way to be a certified as a Therapy dog but we never proceded in using it,Went back to work so no time,You have to make a certian amount of visits/hours.

[pyr4me]

Near me they teach a specific class for becoming a certified therapy dog. It includes passing the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test and then the Therapy Dog International (TDI) certification. They are almost the same test, the TDI has a few more items on it. I am hoping to get Jenny certified, as I think she is a born therapy dog, just like your Sam sounds! 

[People Whisperer]

Lily is certified with TDI. We haven't done too many visits yet... just a few. Lily is only 1.5 and loves everyone. She is very calm around people except for the first 30 seconds. I have to take her for a very long walk before each visit to calm her down. She doesn't like nursing homes or hopitals as much as she loves "reading with children" program. Probably because she gets a chance to sleep right next to children for an hour at every visit, LOL!
I have started her training very early and was very consistent. Obedience classes, trips to the park, stores and friend's houses helped her to adapt to new places without being over stressed. Also dropping heavy objects and obedience training with distructions are huge part of the calm behavior of therapy dogs.  
Therapy work is a very rewarding opportunity you can do with your pup! Good luck!

[Skippy]

Hi,

Doing therapy work and making visits is appreciated so much. Thank you in behave of MIL who is in a nursing home and enjoys the visits.

Julie is it possible that Petsmart has some type of high pitched burglary system you can't hear, but Jackie can.


Skippy

[mynameislola]

When doing noise training,  I use a CD I made with sounds in .wav format gathered from the Internet.  That gets played at least in part every day while I act like I cannot hear it.  It ranges from human sounds like screams, sneezes and arguing to household sounds like the ding of a microwave timer to military sounds like bombs and jets since we live in a Marine Corps base town.

It will not substitute for the sound of metal hitting the floor, but is a start.  IMO metal bowls do best against a concrete because they vibrate so nicely.

Lucky y'all to have dogs appropriate for Therapy.  My only appropriate dog, Cody Newfoundland, would need a forklift to get him there and even then he couldn't be around small children or unstable adults in case he fell over and squashed them.

[amberdoggoneit]

I had a boxer that was a delta certified therapy dog.  I loved doing it.  I worked at a nursing home for the Activities Department so every Friday she would go in with me and basically be everyone else's dog.  We would go to people's rooms and she would get on their bed and sleep for hours with them. 

The nursing home even looked into getting a dog that could live thier fulltime.  They ended up getting a rescue lab and we trained with her for a long time and now she lives there full time.  A little fat from all the treats she gets but still very happy.